The present invention relates to an infant warming apparatus and, more particularly, to an apparatus for providing the combined functions of an infant incubator and an infant warmer and which includes a radiant heater contained within a housing.
There are, of course, many devices or apparatus for the warming of an infant and to supply the necessary heat to maintain the infant at a predetermined temperature. Of the various apparatus, there are infant warmers that are basically planar surfaces on which the infant is positioned and which planar surfaces generally include side guards to keep the infant safely within the confines of the apparatus. Infant warmers normally have an overhead radiant heater that is located above the infant and which thus radiates energy in the infrared spectrum to impinge upon the infant to maintain the infant at a warm, predetermined temperature. Since the infant is otherwise totally exposed to the surroundings, there is almost unlimited access to the infant by the attending personnel to perform various procedures on that infant. At typical infant warmer is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,517 of Falk et al as prior art to that patent.
There are also infant incubators and which are more confined enclosures that contain the infant within an enclosed controlled atmosphere in an infant compartment and which have a convective heating system that heats air and introduces that heated air into an infant compartment to warm the infant. Such convective systems also may include some controlled humidity to introduce moisture to the heated air. Such incubators maintain the infant for long periods of time and include handholes to access the infant. Generally, there is, in addition, a larger access door that can be opened to access the infant or to insert or remove the infant to and from the incubator. Such devices provide a good atmosphere to the infant and control that local environment within which the infant is located, however, it is sometime difficult to perform a wide variety of procedures on the infant due to the somewhat limited access to that infant. A typical infant incubator is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,824 of Koch et al.
At the present, there are also certain infant care apparatus that combine the functions of an infant warmer and an incubator and thus include a overhead radiant heater for radiant warming as well as the functions of an incubator that has a convective heating system that provides heated air to provide warmth to the infant. One such apparatus is shown and described in Donnelly et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,453,077, where there is an upper canopy that can be raised and lowered. When the canopy is in its upper position a radiant heater is energized, however, even then, there is still a convective system that is usable that can form various heated air curtains that travel over the infant to provide heat to that infant. In Donnelly et al, the systems can be used simultaneously.
It would be advantageous to have a single system that combines a radiant heater function with an incubator function having a convective heating system but with a control system where only one of the two functions is operable at a time, that is, when the apparatus is being operated in its radiant heater mode, the convective heating system is disabled and, conversely, when the apparatus is being operated in its incubator mode utilizing the convective heating system, the radiant heater is disabled. In effect, it would be a system that would prevent the simultaneous operation of a convective system and a radiant heating system.
In addition, it would be further advantageous, at those times that the apparatus is being operated as a radiant warmer, to have some means to maintain the various air ducts and related structure warmed to improve the response time of the apparatus when that apparatus is again converted to the incubator mode, that is, the time needed to bring the infant compartment up to the desired temperature is decreased. Obviously, the response time to heat up the infant compartment using heated air is faster if the various air passages and ducting used to convey the heated air are already at an elevated temperature and the heated air from the convective heating system does not have to bring those surfaces up to some elevated temperature from ambient temperatures.